In recent years, electrically powered vehicles including a power storage device (such as a secondary battery or a capacitor) and traveling with a driving force generated from electric power stored in the power storage device have been receiving attention as environmentally friendly vehicles. Examples of such electrically powered vehicles include electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles. Techniques have been proposed for charging the power storage device included in these electrically powered vehicles by a commercial power supply having high power generation efficiency.
Hybrid vehicles including a power storage device that can be charged by a power supply outside of the vehicles as with electric vehicles are known. For example, the so-called “plug-in hybrid vehicles” are known in which a power storage device can be charged by an ordinary household power supply by connecting a power outlet provided in the house to a charging port provided on the vehicles with a charging cable. This is expected to enhance fuel efficiency of hybrid vehicles.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 07-193901 (PTL 1) discloses a pre-air-conditioning technique of activating an air conditioning device of an electric vehicle before travel of the vehicle, based on an estimated time to start travel of the vehicle, a thermal environment inside and outside of the vehicle (temperatures inside and outside of the vehicle), a state of charge of a power storage device (battery), and a set value for temperature inside of the vehicle, which are set in the air conditioning device in the vehicle by a driver, when charging the battery included in the vehicle by a power supply outside of the vehicle.